The War to end all Wars

1.
To Europe’s Western Front they came
From Erin’s western shore
From Meenacroise and Burtonport
From Keadue and Gweedore
They left their turf spades and their boats
Their mothers crying sore
To fight the Kaiser’s heathen hordes
In the war to end all wars

2.
He hung his fiddle by the hearth
Its sound still in his ears
For he would march to different drums
In the Royal Fusiliers
The Home Rule tunes he whistled low
His country’s noble cause
He would fight for Ireland’s promised land
In the war to end all wars

3.
Young Gallagher and his two friends
O’Donnell and McBride
They took the shilling in their hand
And took the train with pride
To Dublin and to Liverpool
To Amien and Albert
Sure it would be done by Christmas time
This war to end all wars

4.
Near Beaumont Hamel Northern France
On the first day of July
Young Gallagher at twenty six
Went rising up to die
In the screaming hell of no-man’s-land
In shells and gas and wire
Blown to pieces at the Somme
In the war to end all wars

5.
Just a name high up on Theipval Tower
That no-one came to see
His dusty fiddle by the hearth
His tune a memory
All those promises like sons betrayed
And trust will bear the scars
Sowing seeds of conflicts still to come
In the war to end all wars